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Looking forward to the integration going full steam. Does anyone have a timeframe on when T-Mobile will shut down the cdma portion of the network?

Based on my experience with MetroPCS it will be at least two years Or more before Sprint’s complete network is shut down. It will get bandwidth removed as people get moved to T-Mobile. At some point T-Mobile will offer the people with non-Compatible phones a deal for trading in their Sprint branded phones and sell them a new phone at just the price of sales tax. On the Tech Channel they said that if you go to a Sprint store that is open, if you buy a new phone they will soon put you on the T-Mobile network.

Of course. I'm familiar with AT&T's release of that. So as of an article in 2017, it said AT&T owned blocks D&E in about 25% of the market and only owned one block in the other 75%. I'm assuming that's where Dish owns block E? Is AT&T getting much out of that?

I doubt we will see any new tags on Sprint devices anytime soon. Still no changes on my Sprint-branded Samsung Galaxy S9+ phone. Time will tell and we can only speculate when some change occurs. I am not holding my breath.

Maybe they'll implement a Sprint SIM trade-in. Ideally they should simply be able to look at the billing accounts on Sprint’s database which’ll show what model phone is associated to the account and a filter would flag T-Mobile compatible phones (phones that support T-Mobile’s bands and VoLTE).

.... I'm assuming that's where Dish owns block E? Is AT&T getting much out of that?

Band 29 is standardized as SDL (Supplemental Download Link). Can someone tell me if this means it has to be aggregated with other 700 MHz to work? I honestly don't understand this. AT&T has block B and/or C almost everywhere they have block E. So, it's not an issue for them. Can it be used for additional download capacity with bands 26 or 71?

I doubt we will see any new tags on Sprint devices anytime soon. ......

Not sure. Didn't Sprint have many (several) different SIMs depending on the device it was to be used in? I recall it being a mess. It will be interesting to see how it's handled.

Originally Posted by DebiLee

Maybe they'll implement a Sprint SIM trade-in......

Sooner or later it will need to be done but when T-Mobile was on their original buying spree ca Y2K they didn't replace everyone's SIM unless there was some specific need or they bought a new phone. I happened to get a new T-Mobile SIM because I needed international roaming and the little carrier that issued my SIM (Digiph PCS) never had international roaming agreements.

I'd guess that replacing all Sprint's SIMs would cost about $10/phone. The SIM is only 50¢. Postage, administrative and Customer Service costs make up the rest.

Band 29 is standardized as SDL (Supplemental Download Link). Can someone tell me if this means it has to be aggregated with other 700 MHz to work? I honestly don't understand this. AT&T has block B and/or C almost everywhere they have block E. So, it's not an issue for them. Can it be used for additional download capacity with bands 26 or 71?

From the dates on most of the whitepapers that surfaced in a Yabingle search, it seems to be a scheme that surfaced initially for HSPDA just prior to Carrier Aggregation. The Nokia post even references band 29 specifically.

It looks like the main (practical) difference is CA combines uplink and downlink of multiple blocks, whereas SDL pairs a downlink-only block with an uplink/downlink pair. Probably an opportunity of last resort as spectrum usage goes, but if it's there, someone is going to use it.

Maybe they'll implement a Sprint SIM trade-in. Ideally they should simply be able to look at the billing accounts on Sprint’s database which’ll show what model phone is associated to the account and a filter would flag T-Mobile compatible phones (phones that support T-Mobile’s bands and VoLTE).

I bet the billing systems will take a good 2 to 3 years to sort out. Maybe even longer? Sprint is a mess.

Band 29 is standardized as SDL (Supplemental Download Link). Can someone tell me if this means it has to be aggregated with other 700 MHz to work? I honestly don't understand this. AT&T has block B and/or C almost everywhere they have block E. So, it's not an issue for them. Can it be used for additional download capacity with bands 26 or 71?

It looks like it uses just standard carrier aggregation to pair it with another band for extra capacity. I found this website which supposedly gives all of the approved carrier aggregation combinations. If this link works properly, you should be able to scroll down past the top chart and see what other bands B29 pairs with and what the bandwith of each pairing is.

Sooner or later it will need to be done but when T-Mobile was on their original buying spree ca Y2K they didn't replace everyone's SIM unless there was some specific need or they bought a new phone.

Yes, I think the devices with compatible bands can receive a firmware update or in the case of an iPhone, new Carrier Settings so that the device knows to use T-Mobile bands where available even though it has a Sprint SIM in it.

Also for older phones with B25 but no B2, T-Mobile should be able to use a Multi-Frequency Band Indicator to be compatible with those B25 phones on its B2 spectrum.

Of course. I'm familiar with AT&T's release of that. So as of an article in 2017, it said AT&T owned blocks D&E in about 25% of the market and only owned one block in the other 75%. I'm assuming that's where Dish owns block E? Is AT&T getting much out of that?

AT&T only owns 700D which they got from Qualcomm, in most of the United States, barring the East and West coast. I’m pretty sure they did a pretty large rollout of it in NYC. Strangely, we have a few sites in my area with the frequency. It’s only 5 MHz where I live, and my phone far prefers to land on B12 or B14. B5 LTE was shutdown recently, I’m guessing for NR.

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

Band 29 is standardized as SDL (Supplemental Download Link). Can someone tell me if this means it has to be aggregated with other 700 MHz to work? I honestly don't understand this. AT&T has block B and/or C almost everywhere they have block E. So, it's not an issue for them. Can it be used for additional download capacity with bands 26 or 71?

IME, it can only be used with midband carriers. Similar to how there aren’t many devices that can do low-low CA, and only with frequencies within the same band (like the ability to to 5+5 in certain AT&T/Verizon markets where they own both 850 blocks, or T-Mobile doing n71+b71 CA on the DL and UL).

Samsung devices for UL CA are strangely only given 5+5 or 66+66 in LTE. I’m not aware of any reports of it actually being used, whereas we’ve got a lot of confirmation of mid-low UL CA on iPhone 11/Pro/Max devices.

Also, the 700E license is currently being leased out to AT&T. Wondering if Dish will strike long-term leases with AT&T for AWS4/700E, Verizon for AWS3, and T-Mobile for 600 MHz. It’s definitely something that benefits all of them along with all of us, and if they were to continue to lease these frequencies while they build out their network, it could be a source of revenue to allow them to do so.

... If this link works properly, you should be able to scroll down past the top chart and see what other bands B29 pairs with and what the bandwith of each pairing is. ...

Thanks for that link. Some of those parings seem strange. Using band 29 as a download augmentation for band 66 seems, well, bizarre. The two aggregations that would seem most helpful to DISH would be with band 26 and band 71. I don't see them listed. I think what AT&T might be doing with band 12/17 and 29 is simply using block D (and D+E in some markets) as an extension of block C's downlink band, similar to what T-Mobile did when they used asymmetric up and download bands on block A when there were TV channel 51 issues. (Just thinking aloud.)

Also for older phones with B25 but no B2, T-Mobile should be able to use a Multi-Frequency Band Indicator to be compatible with those B25 phones on its B2 spectrum.

Yes, that would be an easy thing to do since band 2 is a subset of 25. However, many phones that old (Galaxy 3S) would probably not have VoLTE.

Does voice calls between Sprint and T-Mobile have HD sound? I have a local friend on Sprint with a iPhone 10 that I talk with her a lot and wasn’t impressed by the sound quality in the past. Spoke with another friend today on Sprint with a LG G7 thin-Q and the sound seems to be better HD sound. Has Sprint had good HD sound before between T-Mobile and Sprint or did the merger change anything.

Thanks for that link. Some of those parings seem strange. Using band 29 as a download augmentation for band 66 seems, well, bizarre. The two aggregations that would seem most helpful to DISH would be with band 26 and band 71. I don't see them listed. I think what AT&T might be doing with band 12/17 and 29 is simply using block D (and D+E in some markets) as an extension of block C's downlink band, similar to what T-Mobile did when they used asymmetric up and download bands on block A when there were TV channel 51 issues. (Just thinking aloud.)

Yes, that would be an easy thing to do since band 2 is a subset of 25. However, many phones that old (Galaxy 3S) would probably not have VoLTE.

SDL cannot be the primary channel (PCC). It can be the secondary channel.